


Saying Goodbye (it's never easy)

by ChestnutBrumby



Category: MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M, Future Fic, Other, Why did I write this argh, depressing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 18:29:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7812544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChestnutBrumby/pseuds/ChestnutBrumby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I know, I know, I <i>never</i> write stuff this depressing. I've always been a longterm Thor/Jane shipper, and I knew there wasn't much hope of Jane returning to the MCU once Portman was a confirmed no-show for Ragnarok, but I just read the articles about her definite intention not to return. Really, I expected as much, we were set up for her leaving the MCU in Ultron, and I've been hearing rumours of Portman's issues with the Marvel movies for a while now.<br/>Still, I feel a bit down, so this happened.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Saying Goodbye (it's never easy)

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I _never_ write stuff this depressing. I've always been a longterm Thor/Jane shipper, and I knew there wasn't much hope of Jane returning to the MCU once Portman was a confirmed no-show for Ragnarok, but I just read the articles about her definite intention not to return. Really, I expected as much, we were set up for her leaving the MCU in Ultron, and I've been hearing rumours of Portman's issues with the Marvel movies for a while now.  
>  Still, I feel a bit down, so this happened.

New Mexico was largely unchanged. Though hovers flew instead of cars, the dust they kicked up was the same, coating everything in a faint layer of yellow-brown. Thor didn't know what he'd hoped to accomplish coming back here. He turned his back on the diner, noting that Isabelle's granddaughter was running the operation now.   
  
His heavy steps crunched solidly against the sand. He stopped by the rooftop he and Jane had spent their first night together upon, talking about Asgardian science under the light of the stars. He couldn't bring himself to fly up, as if he thought their deck chairs and firepit would still be there, waiting.   
  
Of course, it wasn't the chairs or the fire he wanted to see there. Unconsciously, his fingers tightened around Mjolnir's handle. How many years he had carried his faithful weapon? But now, there was no threat, no enemy looming in his sights that he could crush with great satisfaction with a single swing of his hammer. The enemy that had struck was not tangible, nothing that he could lift ****Mjolnir against.  
  
There was no defense. Not against time.   
  
Thor finally came to a halt out in the desert, where once a van had loomed from the storm and crashed right into him. The town hadn't reached this far - the landscape was empty. Thor stared for a long time, his mind creating ghosts from the shadows.   
  
It was, of course, Vision who came looking for him. Thor wasn't even aware of his friend's approach until he sat down at his side, carefully picking up Mjolnir and putting it aside to make room.    
  
Like Thor himself, Vision had barely changed over the decades. Thor's keen eye could detect the very fine imprint of lines around Vision's eyes and mouth - laugh lines, not the obviously robotic meeting of sections that traced Vision's features. Otherwise, he looked much as he had the day Thor had brought him to life.     
  
"I thought that you might like some company." Thor glanced his way, but he didn't reply. He was certain if he opened his mouth he'd either scream or roar. He lowered his jaw in a tense nod though, and Vision, who missed little, understood.  
  
Thor felt selfish, taking up Vision's time when soon enough, his friend would be going through exactly what he was. He ought to be at his home, with his wife.      
  
Wanda had stayed by Vision's side through the years,  even after Thanos ripped Vision's gem from his forehead and wiped the JARVIS section of his matrix, leaving only Ultron's base consciousness behind. It had been Wanda who insisted to their teammates that their Vision was still in there, that they couldn't give up on him. When even Tony was talking about combining their forces to destroy Vision for good in the name of protecting all the worlds, it was Wanda who dared stand in his way and tell him he was wrong.   
  
Thor understood that, because he had had the same faith in Jane that Wanda had in Vision.   
  
Wanda was ninety-eight now, and though her body was frail her mind was as sharp as ever, and she and Vision were as inseparable now as they had been originally, in the Avengers compound all those years ago. Thor wondered, briefly, just how many conversations they had left together.  
  
How many years - weeks? - would it be until Thor was sitting beside Vision, comforting him?   
  
"Will you go back to Asgard?" Vision asked at length, a tinge of sadness in his voice at the thought.    
  
Thor shook his head. Facing New Mexico he now knew he couldn't cope with the memories of Jane if he returned to Asgard. They had been married there, ruled there for some decades before returning to make a simpler life here on Midgard.  
  
They had been happy, in that world and in this one.     
  
It had been some months since he thought of his brother, but Loki came to mind with a sharp pang now. For all his tricks, all his wit and wordplay, Thor thought that Loki might have understood him now. Maybe it was just wishful thinking though, he told himself. He'd always seen better of Loki than anybody else had.   
  
But grieving for Jane brought forward the memory of Loki's deaths - watching his brother fall from the Rainbow Bridge, the time he'd tricked him after facing the Dark Elves... but worst of all, the real time. Loki had deserved better than that, no matter what anybody else thought, than a poison blade in the back.   
  
"No." He replied, belatedly, to Vision's previous question. "I'll go somewhere new. Somewhere I haven't seen yet."   
  
"Do you think you'll find any answers there?" The gears in Vision's blue eyes spun to the left, then aligned back to the right.   
  
"I doubt it." He stood, clutched at the reassuring weight that was Mjolnir.   
  
"Must you go?" Thor wasn't imagining the wistfulness in Vision's voice. Now that Jane was gone, Vision was the only family he had left, and though he felt guilty for leaving him, he knew he wasn't strong enough to stay here on Jane's world, among these ever-present reminders.    
  
The android heard that thought in his mind and smiled faintly. "Though I could never truly have a brother, that is how I have always thought of you." He told Thor, reaching out a hand to grasp his own. Thor felt a tug within his breast, as if Vision had placed in a stitch or two into his shredded heart.   
  
"You as well, my brother." Thor gripped Vision's fingers so tightly that if he'd been a normal human they would have been crushed. "Will you give Wanda my fondest wishes?"   
  
"I will. Stay safe." Vision stepped back to give the Bifrost the room it needed as Thor lifted his hammer. The brilliant arc of colours flared down from the sky, surrounded Thor - then was gone.   
  
A brief flash of light, no more than a blink, akin to those longer lived than normal mortals... destined to outlive the ones they loved.    
 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going back to work on Sweet Dreams to write sickeningly happy endings for the next thirty chapters to recover from writing this now. Somebody send me chocolate?


End file.
